A central problem in eukaryotic molecular biology continues to be elucidation of molecules and mechanisms that mediate specific gene regulation in response to exogenous inducers such as hormones or growth factors. Although much remains to be learned about the specifics of such mechanisms, it is known that exogenous inducers such as hormones modulate gene transcription by acting in concert with intracellular components, including intracellular receptors and discrete DNA known as hormone response elements or HRE's.
More specifically, it is known that hormones like the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormones enter cells by facilitated diffusion. It is also known that the hormones then bind to specific receptor proteins, thereby creating a hormone/receptor complex. The binding of hormone to the receptor is believed to initiate an alosteric alteration of the receptor protein. As a result of this alteration, it is believed that the hormone/receptor complex is capable of binding with high affinity to certain specific sites on the chromatin DNA. Such sites, which are referred to in the art by a variety of names, including hormone response elements or HRE's, modulate expression (transcription of RNA) of nearby target gene promoters.
A major obstacle to further understanding the specifics of gene regulation by exogenous inducers such as hormones has been the lack of availability of receptor proteins in sufficient quantity and purity to allow such proteins to be adequately analyzed and characterized. This same lack of availability has thwarted the use of receptors in diagnostic assays to determine the presence of exogenous inducers (e.g., the hormones) in various body fluids and tissues. as well as their use as "prototypes" for engineering chimeric receptor protein analogs.
In an effort to overcome this lack of availability of receptor proteins, co-pending application U.S.S.N. 108,471, which has been assigned to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, assignee of the present application, discloses cloned genes for a variety of receptor proteins, including glucocorticoid-, thyroid-, mineralocorticoid- and new steroid-related receptors. U.S.S.N 108,471 further discloses detailed biochemical characterization of these molecules which shows that the receptor proteins contain discrete DNA- and ligand-binding domains. (Portions of U.S.S.N. 108,471 have been published; for portions relating to cloning of the glucocorticoid receptor and characterization of this molecule into discrete domains, see Hollenberg, et al. (1985) and Giguere, et al., (1986); for other related work regarding receptors, see Hollenberg, et al., (1987), Green, et al., (1986), Green and Chambon, (1987), Kumar, et al., (1987), Miesfeld, et al., (1987) and Evans (1988)).
Further with regard to biochemical characterization of the receptors, sequence analysis of the human glucocorticoid receptor gene revealed homology with the product of the v-erb-A oncogene of avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV) (see Weinberger, et al., (1985)). This group and others subsequently demonstrated the cellular homolog of v-erb-A to be the beta thyroid hormone receptor (see Weinberger et al., (1986) and Sap, et al., (1986)).
The discovery that the DNA-binding domain of the steroid and thyroid hormone receptors is highly conserved raised the question of whether this segment might be diagnostic for related ligand inducible transcription factors. It also raised the question of whether the DNA sequences encoding these domains might be used as hybridization probes to scan the genome for related, but novel, ligand-responsive receptors. Utilizing this approach, our group at the Salk Institute has identified several new gene products. As is shown in U.S.S.N. 108,471, one is the human aldosterone receptor (hMR, ATCC No. 67201) (see Arriza, et al., (1987) for the published version of this portion of U.S.S.N. 108,471); a second is a novel thyroid hormone receptor expressed at high levels in the rat central nervous system (rTR alpha, ATCC No. 67281) (see Thompson, et al., (1987) for the published version of this portion of U.S.S.N. 108,471).
This disclosure describes the isolation and characterization of a cloned full-length cDNA encoding a novel retinoid receptor protein with homology to the DNA-binding and ligand-binding domains of the steroid and thyroid hormone receptors. In addition the construction and characterization of chimeric receptors made by "swapping" functional domains between the glucocorticoid, the mineralocorticoid, the thyroid, the estrogen-related, and the retinoic acid receptors is described. These chimeric receptors have hybrid functional characteristics based on the "origin" of the "parental" DNA-binding and ligand-binding domains incorporated within the chimeras. For example, if the DNA-binding domain in the chimeric receptor is a retinoic acid receptor DNA-binding domain (i.e., is obtained from wild-type retinoic acid receptor or is a mutant that contains the functional elements of retinoic acid DNA-binding domain), then the chimera will have DNA-binding properties characteristic of a retinoic acid receptor. The same is true of the ligand-binding domain. If the ligand-binding domain in the chimeric receptor binds to thyroid hormone, then the chimera will have ligand-binding properties characteristic of a thyroid hormone receptor.
This disclosure also describes a new method for identifying functional ligands for ligand-responsive receptor proteins. The method is illustrated by showing (1) that the retinoid, retinoic acid and its metabolic precurser, retinol, are functional ligands for the newly discovered receptor protein, and (2) that the DNA- and ligand-binding domains determine the functional characteristics of the chimeric receptors.